"In a rapidly changing environment, making precise growth projections is unusually difficult. Therefore, the report presents both a baseline and a lower case scenario. Growth in the developing EAP region is projected to slow to 2.1 percent in the baseline and to negative 0.5 in the lower case scenario in 2020, from an estimated 5.8 percent in 2019", it said.
The bank said that the growth in China is projected to decline to 2.3 percent in the baseline and 0.1 percent in the lower case scenario in 2020, from 6.1 percent in 2019.
"Containment of the pandemic would allow for a sustained recovery in the region, although risks to the outlook from financial market stress would remain high", it said.
China, where the COVID-19 originated last December, is reporting a relatively lower number of cases in late March. The Chinese government said earlier that the peak of the disease outbreak had been surpassed.
